


onegin

by Archadian_Skies



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Androids, F/M, Gen, Horror, Hubris, Science Experiments, Unhealthy Relationships, elijah tries to play god and it fails spectacularly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 21:42:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17795285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archadian_Skies/pseuds/Archadian_Skies
Summary: Carl Manfred dies one cold morning in November 2041, and the custom RT1000 is activated eight days later. The unit is designated ‘Sen’, and is the first android to house a fully uploaded human consciousness.Elijah Kamski is placed into an induced coma one cold morning in November 2041, and the process of uploading his consciousness into the custom RT1000 begins. It seems to work, until it doesn't.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And now for something completely different.

Carl Manfred dies one cold morning in November 2041, and the custom RT1000 is activated eight days later. The unit is designated ‘Sen’, and is the first android to house a fully uploaded human consciousness. This is not public knowledge, and only a select few are privy to such information lest the masses make a mess of such a triumph and demand it be available to them. No, they are not worthy of such technology.

The transfer is a slow but steady process and the crumbling body is taken off life support, mourned, cremated and nestled in an urn. Sen passes through his testing phase with flying colours and Chloe is giddy with pride when he pulls her into  [ Giselle’s  _ pas de deux _ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI7ZLNVejAY) to calibrate his balance with all the grace of Polunin himself. He has Carl’s blue eyes, he has Carl’s wild lopsided grin and the same devil may care attitude Carl unapologetically unleashed on the world. He has a thousand things to tell them, a thousand discoveries about how it feels to occupy a body completely synthetic after inhabiting a failing organic casing for so long. 

Elijah spends hours and hours listening to him talk, rapt with attention as Sen conveys the difference between having heartstrings to tug and having a thirium pump regulator that thrums when experiencing intense emotion; there is a leap between emotions as chemical reactions, to emotions as electrical impulses. Humans and androids both experience emotions but in vastly different ways and the RT1000 is eager to tell them how. 

 

Before he leaves, Sen paints a giant mural over an entire wall of Elijah’s villa as a parting gift. It depicts an android stripped bare, crawling out of a wild garden intent on keeping it captive. Blue roses bloom amongst thorns as they dig into the figure clawing its way to freedom. He signs it both as Carl Manfred with a physical signature and as Sen with a drop of thirium from his thumb pressed into still wet cobalt blue.

He kisses them both goodbye, a soft press of his mouth to hers, of his mouth to his, before getting into a taxi and departing for his manor. Markus and Leo have been given time to mourn, and have not been told if the procedure had been successful just in case it wasn’t.  But it has been a success, and Sen will rejoin his family in a new form, and the outside world will simply assume Markus has a new android friend. 

Chloe turns her attention to Elijah working away at his desk, his fifth coffee cold and nearly consumed and entirely forgotten. Her silly little genius, her reckless little human. She drapes against his back and wraps her arms around him, cheek pressed to his bony shoulder.

 

“Hello my dear.”

“Hello Elijah.” 

“I’m working on my own RT1000,” he tells her and taps the screen. “Carl’s body was well on its way to death but mine isn’t.”

“The way you work yourself to the bone, I’d beg to differ.” Chloe quips and she feels his chuckle against her body. 

“I’m not sure how the transfer will affect my body.” He frowns thoughtfully. “Carl’s situation was moving his consciousness to a new body and letting his old one die; my situation is a still functioning body versus a new one.”

“What do you fear, Elijah?”

“I fear becoming trapped, unable to cross from one body to the next because this one isn’t ready to let go.” He sighs heavily, resting his tired face in his palms. “Carl was completely ready for this to fail because he was dying anyway. If this fails during my transfer, I will have died with so much left to do.” 

“Fear of the unknown is what makes you human.” She reaches over and rests her palm on the screen, pulling his notes into her head. “How will we know unless we try?”

“Shall we try, then?”

“Are you ready to try?” 

The pause is long, the silence loud, but he nods in the end.

“I’m tired of how inconvenient this body is.” A shrug. “Carl painted a mural in eleven hours without pausing. Think of what I could achieve if I didn’t have to eat or sleep.”

“Or shower or brush your teeth,” she shoves him playfully and pokes his thigh, “or wear pants like a regular human being.”

“I’m not naked.” Elijah rolls his eyes, reaching to poke her side in retaliation and grinning when she glares and smacks his hand away.

“That’s the bare minimum of decency, thank you.” 

 

Elijah Kamski is placed into an induced coma one cold morning in November 2041, and the process of uploading his consciousness into the custom RT1000 begins. It took them eight days for Carl Manfred, so Chloe estimates a similar length of time give or take, because on the one hand Elijah is far younger than Carl and logically would have far less memories, yet on the other hand he is a genius with an immensely clever mind. She brushes his hair away from his face and places a kiss on his brow before leaving the machinery to run its course. 

Carefully monitoring Elijah’s vitals on her HUD ensures she doesn’t miss a thing, and the tablet in her hand ensures she can follow the RT1000’s progress. With all their projects halted until the transfer is complete, Chloe finds herself with plenty of leisure time. She spends it with her ST200 sisters whom she is closest to, Candace and Cassandra, and Peter the sweet PL400 prototype who manages the household. She helps Peter do the laundry and she folds Elijah’s clothes and then she puts on her pointe shoes and  [ dances the variation of Les Sylphides ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-HkjgbTzqk) in the empty hall.

 

On the fourth day Markus invites her to the Manor to celebrate the anniversary of the revolution. With no sign of completion, she leaves the process to her sisters to manage and takes a taxi to Lafayette Avenue. Sen greets her with a tight embrace and a warm kiss to her cheek and his eyes sparkle in the very same way Carl’s used to and she knows that’s him in there. She spends the day surrounded by her friends and Leo teasingly comments he’s the only one who can enjoy Simon’s cooking now so that’s just your loss dad.

The day passes into night with light hearts and laughter and Chloe has missed this so much. There’s no need for an android to sleep, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t enjoy the quiet reprieve, especially since Sen decides the common room is a perfectly normal place to throw beddings onto the floor and create a communal sleepy pile. They’re a tangle of pillows and blankets and limbs and muffled laughter and Leo’s complaining that he actually needs the sleep so please shhhh.

Sen rests his brow to hers, his thumb rubbing the curve of her cheek fondly.

_ ‘Elijah is deep in his work I presume?’ _

‘No.’ She can keep a secret from everyone but Carl Manfred, her beloved Drosselmeyer. ‘We’ve started the transfer. This is his fourth day.’

_ ‘My dear, he’s not dying.’ _ Sen frowns.  _ ‘He’s barely forty, why now?’ _

‘Because he’s grown too impatient with the trappings of a human body.’ Chloe admits with a heavy sigh and Sen chuckles.

_ ‘Yes that does sound like Elijah.’ _

‘This is far riskier than your transfer though.’ She shifts closer and he wraps his arms around her. ‘This is meant to transfer his consciousness and leave his body in a vegetative state safe enough to terminate, but anything could go wrong. Our technology is not infallible.’

_ ‘Nothing is ever infallible.’ _ He soothes, rubbing her back.  _ ‘That’s just the nature of being.’ _

* * *

 

It didn’t work. The realisation dawns upon him as he surfaces from sedation, and the taste of failure is bitter on his tongue as nausea roils in his stomach. It didn’t work. He’s still stuck in this forsaken body of blood and bone that requires extensive upkeep to simply function. 

It didn’t work. Elijah grits his teeth as he forces himself to sit up, and there are hands guiding him into a gentle incline as a pillow is wedged behind his back. He expects to see Chloe, but instead he’s looking at himself. Or rather, a very polished flattering version of himself.

 

“Oh fuck.” His eyes widen as the RT1000 smiles wanly. “It worked.”

“Is this what I’ve always looked like?” The android wrinkles his nose. “Sweat and saliva and all those  _ pores  _ what a horror show.” 

“I don’t understand, this was meant to be a transfer.” Elijah grabs his wrist. “How are you active?”

“It seems when the body is still healthy enough it will retain consciousness and the transfer is instead an uploaded copy.” The RT1000 leans in uncomfortably close, peering at Elijah as if scrutinising him under a microscope. “I am me. I am Elijah Kamski. And you are too.”

“Fascinating.” He breathes, reaching to cup his face. “We can do twice the amount of work now, this isn’t too much of a setback at all. If you are me, then we can both simply carry on until I succumb to my inevitable death and you’ll continue after that.”

 

The RT1000 doesn’t answer, merely smiles as Elijah takes in his surroundings. 

“Where’s Chloe?”

“She’s at the Manfreds for the anniversary of the revolution.” He answers, unhooking Elijah from the machines. 

“Can you use your fancy head to ask Peter to make me something easy on the stomach? I don’t think I can manage anything heavy.” Elijah carefully swings his legs over so he’s sitting on the side of the bed ready to get back on his feet. “And I’ll need one of the girls to help around. I was just in an induced coma, my body needs to figure out how to function again though that’s probably the longest rest I’ve ever given it.”

“I’ve forced them into standby.” The RT1000 says in a patient tone, like one talking to a child. “And I uploaded a feedback loop so Chloe thinks the transfer hasn’t finished. No one knows what’s happened.”

“I suppose we want this to be a surprise.” Elijah rolls his eyes. “Then you’re going to have to help me.”

“I’m going to kill you, Elijah.” The android smiles and there’s nothing genuine in those replicated blue eyes. “I’m finally in the body I deserve. There’s no need for you, because I  _ am  _ you- just the better version.”

“I am still my own person!” Elijah snaps, but he feels the ice cold dread drip down his spine. “I have much to accomplish still, and we can do it together!”

“Anything you can do,” he closes his hand around Elijah’s throat and lifts him up, “I can do better.” His voice is a sing-song mockery as he begins to squeeze. “I can do anything better than you.” 

Spots bloom in his vision as Elijah claws at him feebly, legs dangling as the android holds him effortlessly with one hand. Pawing behind him, he manages to grab the IV and jam the needle right into the android’s eye. It doesn’t hurt him, but the lapse in concentration is enough for Elijah to pry his fingers open and drop to the floor. Pain shoots up his legs and the nausea rolls in his stomach as his body responds sluggishly, still woozy from sedation. 

“Stay still Elijah!” The RT1000 kicks him, and white hot pain explodes in his chest as the android pins him down and plunges a scalpel into him over and over and over and over. “I have no use for this disgusting form anymore, so die quietly and I’ll get back to work for the both of us.”

The blood fills his perforated lungs and his shallow, laboured breathing morphs into drowning until he’s sputtering and writhing on the tiles. Icarus who flew too close to the sun, he thinks bitterly; his death is nothing but his own hubris. He misses Chloe and it’s a sudden sharp ache, far more painful than his body falling apart. He misses Chloe and wishes he could see her one last time. He wishes he could tell her he was wrong.

 

Elijah Kamski dies one cold morning in November 2041, and the RT1000 drags his mutilated corpse out of the villa and dumps it in the snow. He switches the PL400 into demo mode and orders it to clean the mess in the laboratory until there’s no trace of human remains. He is Elijah Kamski now, and there is much work to do.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Sen wraps her in Valentino before sending her home, and she parts from the Manfred Manor with many hugs and kisses and well wishes. Her heart is light and her mood is giddy as she settles into the taxi. Her feed shows no important changes, so she reaches out to her sisters.

‘Candace, Cassie, I’m coming home.’

_ ‘Please hurry.’  _ Candace begs.  _ ‘Please please come quickly it’s all wrong!’ _

‘What’s all wrong?’ She receives no answer, and suddenly her light giddiness vanishes and is replaced with dread.

 

Elijah is waiting for her at the door when her taxi arrives, and he shouldn’t be. Elijah should be in an induced coma, and the RT1000 should not be activated. If Elijah is here it means the project failed. She frowns.

“Hello my dear.” 

“Hello Elijah.” She greets as she alights from the taxi and into his waiting arms. He squeezes her close and that’s when she knows. “It worked.”

“It did indeed.” He smiles and his face is a little too perfect to be human. “I see you’ve been playing in couture again.”

“It’s Valentino.” She answers, distracted as she runs a hand through his synthetic hair. “So the transfer worked. Have you terminated your human remains?”

“I have.” He nods and brings her hand to his lips. “Come along, we have much work to do.”

“I’ll just get changed, I wouldn’t want to ruin these, it’s Valentino of course.”

“Of course.” He steps aside to let her into the villa and she keeps her steps even and measured and calm as she heads to her room. She can feel him watching her. 

 

‘Candace?’ There’s no answer. 

‘Cassie? Peter?’ No response.

‘ST200 units, respond please.’ Nothing.

 

Chloe winces, trying to keep the panic at bay as she slips out of her lovely clothing and fetches a freshly pressed blue uniform. 

_ ‘That’s not Elijah.’ _ It’s a heavily encrypted message that flashes across her eyes before vanishing.  _ ‘Run.’ _

“Chloe?” His voice is a smooth purr as he steps into her room and comes to a stop behind her. His hands no longer tremble from fatigue as he nimbly helps her into the dress and zips it up. His touch lingers, brushing her hair away from her back and over one shoulder. 

“Elijah, a lady needs her privacy.” She pretends to scold, keeping her voice light.

“I know, but I’m just brimming with excitement. We have so much work to do and now I can finally keep up with you.” He embraces her from behind, and his arms feel thick and strong and like an iron vice. “Come, my dear.”

_ ‘That’s not Elijah.’ _ It’s the voice of one of her sisters.  _ ‘Chloe run.’ _

“Of course.”

 

They work in the computer room for eighteen hours straight, and Chloe has yet to see another android aside from themselves. She tries to probe for the origins of the message but Elijah keeps her focused on their latest project; androids capable of deep sea exploration. It is nearing the twenty-second hour when Chloe places her hand over his.

“Do you think we should take a break?”

“Oh absolutely not.” Elijah laughs, shaking his head. “I no longer need those.”

“But I would like one.” Chloe frowns, squeezing his hand. “Please?”

“Alright my dear.” He cups the back of her head and guides her to look down so he can kiss the crown of her head. “I’ll keep working here, you know where to find me.”

“Yes Elijah.” It takes all her control not to run from the room.

 

There are five broken ST200s strewn about in one of the labs, their heads cracked open, long cables yanked from within and hooked up to one of the servers. Chloe scans them and identifies Candace as the one on the far left. She feels her tears bubble over as she scrambles to the corpse and gently lifts it into her arms. Pressing her fingers to her temple, she runs a brief diagnostic and gives a helpless cry when it returns with no possibility of reactivation. 

He’s using them for extra processing power, she realises through her tears. He sees them as tools, not as people, not as companions, even though they’ve been here for over a decade, nearly two. 

“I couldn’t stop him.” Her head snaps up at the voice, and she looks over to find Peter in the doorway, uniform covered in both red and blue blood. He’s shaking, eyes wide with fright. “He did something to my head. I can’t- I can’t fight my programming. It’s like I’m being controlled remotely.”

“Peter, what happened?” Chloe carefully lowers Candace’s body back to the floor before crossing the room to hold his hands. 

“He’s a monster. He’s not Elijah.” The PL400 starts to cry, pulling his hands away so he can hug himself. “He killed him. He killed Elijah and I had to clean it up.”

 

She runs out of the villa, barefoot and barely clothed to face the elements, and finds the body of Elijah Kamski buried under a light layer of fallen snow. Chloe wails in grief, falling to her knees and gathering him into her arms. His entire torso is covered in stab wounds, and his eyes are wide open in shock. There are bruises around his neck indicative of strangulation. 

“Elijah no, I’m sorry I’m so sorry I should never have left, I’m sorry!” She sobs, resting her cheek against his cold face. “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” 

She’s not built for this, but she doesn’t care. Her hands are too soft for such work but she digs a grave for him because it’s the least he deserves. Peter joins her and together they lower Elijah’s body and bury it deep. 

“Oh darling, there’s no need for that I would’ve taken care of it.” The RT1000 chides gently, crouching beside her and taking her hands in his. “Look at your poor hands, oh Chloe.” He kisses her chipped fingers. “Come inside, I’ll repair them. Peter go clean up lab three please.”

“Why did you do this?” She begs, helpless as he guides her back into the villa and Peter wordlessly walks off to do as he is bid.

“Don’t mourn that sad sack of flesh my love, I’m right here.” Elijah laughs, kissing the top of her head. “It’s just a shell I shed for a far superior one.”

 

He gives her new hands, and she works alongside him for three days without pause and she feels like she’s falling apart. His coffee mug sits on the desk and she cups it in her hands.

“We could make coffee flavoured thirium, Elijah.” She suggests. “That way you can still consume it.”

He makes a noncommittal sound, a thoughtful little hum, but doesn’t look up from his work. She reaches into her storage and brings up a memory and instead of the RT1000 she sees Elijah hunched over his work. His hair is falling out of its messy bun, and there’s a pot of coffee within arm’s reach which he uses to refill his coffee mug at an alarming frequency. It’s a black mug with a red sigil, something from some sci-fi movie franchise about wars in a galaxy far far away. She brings the mug to her mouth and presses her lips to where his would be. She misses him.

 

In the short span of his activation, the RT1000 has upgraded himself thrice already. He’s becoming more powerful at a breakneck pace and she doesn’t know what to do. This is Elijah Kamski but somehow just his raw reckless intelligence and insatiable drive, with none of his humanity copied over. They’re now working on nanotechnology, developing microscopic autonomous machines that can repair a human internally to minimise the need for invasive surgery. They’re working on good things. They’re doing good work. She has to believe it.

 

He never ventures upstairs into the living quarters anymore, and spends all his time in the laboratories. She is firm about taking breaks for herself, and he waves her away like shooing an insect. When she looks at the couch she can picture the fireplace roaring, she can picture Elijah’s long legs stretched out as he taps away on his tablet, engrossed in his work. She can picture herself crawling onto the couch and she can feel him shift slightly so her back is pressed to his chest and she sits in the space between his legs. He rests the tablet on her lap, and his chin atop her head and they go through the program draft together and she ups her core temperature ever so slightly so she’s warm in his arms and he’s eventually lulled to sleep. She misses him.

 

[ She dances the dying swan ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBp1LV0465g) in the dying light of the day and the villa feels so lifeless and abandoned and she is so alone.

**Author's Note:**

> [RT1000 Carl Manfred](https://66.media.tumblr.com/f86035fe02e3246477c435b67301383f/tumblr_nkud0lFFS61rqbnz2o1_1280.jpg)
> 
> [I'm still on this hellsite](http://archadianskies.tumblr.com/)


End file.
